OMNI’s newsletters are much about dissent:
ACLU, Bill of Rights, Civil
Liberties, Civil Rights, Climate Change, Conscientious Objectors, Democracy,
First Amendment, Freedom from Religion Foundation, Resistance, Social and
Economic Rights, Voting, War Dissidents, etc., a large index in any country
that claims to be democratic.

What’s at stake:
The US is founded on the
revolutionary idea of the freedom to dissent against established power. How well has the US encouraged and protected
that freedom?

EMILY DICKINSON
#435

Much Madness is divinest Sense –

To a discerning
Eye –

Much Sense – the starkest Madness –

‘Tis the Majority

In this, as All, prevail –

Assent – and you are sane –

Demur – you’re straightway dangerous –

And handled with a Chain –

Contents #2

Theory

Collins and Skover,
On Dissent

USA

Dissent: “America” and “American,” as references to the
USA and because they are inaccurate and project US power and empire, have
caused immense harm for over 200 years throughout the world. --Dick

On Dissent: Its Meaning in America

·America values dissent. It tolerates, encourages, and protects
it. But what is this thing we value? That is a question never asked. “Dissent”
is treated as a known fact. For all that has been said about dissent – in
books, articles, judicial opinions, and popular culture – it is remarkable that
no one has devoted much, if any, ink to explaining what dissent is. No one has
attempted to sketch its philosophical, linguistic, legal, or cultural meanings
or usages. There is a need to develop some clarity about this phenomenon we
call dissent, for not every difference of opinion, symbolic gesture, public
activity in opposition to government policy, incitement to direct action,
revolutionary effort, or political assassination need be tagged dissent. In
essence, we have no conceptual yardstick. It is just that measure of meaning
that On Dissent offers.

oNo other book examines the meaning of the concept of dissent -
what it is and what it is not, which are the key characteristics of dissent and
which are not

oExplains the difference between the concept of dissent and the
forms of dissent that are constitutionally protected

Ralph Young is Professor of History at Temple University. He is the
author of Dissent in America: The
Voices That Shaped a Nation, a
compilation of primary documents of 400 years of American dissenters.

Dissent: The History of an American Idea examines the key role dissent has played
in shaping the United States. It focuses on those who, from colonial days to the present, dissented against the
ruling paradigm of their time: from the Puritan Anne Hutchinson and Native
American chief Powhatan in the seventeenth century, to the Occupy and Tea Party
movements in the twenty-first century. The emphasis is on the way Americans, celebrated figures and anonymous ordinary citizens,
responded to what they saw as the injustices that prevented them from fully
experiencing their vision of America.

At its founding the United States committed
itself to lofty ideals. When the promise of those ideals was not fully realized
by all Americans, many protested and demanded that the United States live up to
its promise. Women fought for equal rights; abolitionists sought to destroy
slavery; workers organized unions; Indians resisted white encroachment on their
land; radicals angrily demanded an end to the dominance of the moneyed
interests; civil rights protestors marched to end segregation; antiwar
activists took to the streets to protest the nation’s wars; and reactionaries,
conservatives, and traditionalists in each decade struggled to turn back the
clock to a simpler, more secure time. Some dissenters are celebrated heroes of
American history, while others are ordinary people: frequently overlooked, but
whose stories show that change is often accomplished through grassroots
activism.

The United States is a nation founded on the
promise and power of dissent. In this stunningly comprehensive volume, Ralph
Young shows us its history.

REVIEWS

·"A sweeping,
panoramic narrative that is ambitious in nature, and broad and deep in scope.
It provides an alternative history of the United States—indeed of 'America.' It
is a history—not from the vantage point of the forgotten or the 'losers,' per
se—but from dissenters: those who fought—valiantly, nobly, with great foresight
and insight, and often against overwhelming, even impossible, odds and at great
cost to themselves—in order to push, pull, shift, and shape the American world
around them."

—Glenn Feldman, University of Alabama at
Birmingham

·"A beautifully
written and impressively comprehensive survey of the history of dissent in
America."

—Thaddeus Russell, author of A
Renegade History of the United States

·"Ralph Young takes
us on a journey from the distant Puritan past to the cultural divisions of the
contemporary age, showing that at every step along the way the nation's most
powerful and productive force has been its rich tradition of dissent, the
willingness of its citizens to cut against the grain of conformity to help
build a fairer, more representative democracy. Marked by fast-paced and
engaging prose, and filled with important insights and observations, Dissent may
be the most important revisionist history of the nation since Howard
Zinn's A People's History."

—David M. Wrobel, Merrick Chair in Western
American History, University of Oklahoma

·"A wonderfully
erudite and lucid introduction to another 'American dream' that inspired
millions around the world. A wise and topical invitation to reappraise global
image of American culture today, when we are facing renewed struggle for hearts
and minds."

—Vladislav Zubok, London School of Economics
and Politics

·"A broad-ranging,
evenhanded view of a tradition honed into an art form in America: the use of
dissent as 'a critique of governance'...Young has a knack for finding obscure
but thoroughly revealing moments of history to illustrate his points; learning
about Fries' Rebellion and the Quasi-War with France is worth the price of
admission alone, though his narrative offers much more besides...Refreshingly
democratic—solid supplemental reading to the likes of Terkel and Alinsky,
insistent on upholding the rights of political minorities even when they're
wrong."

—Kirkus Reviews

·"Temple
University historian Young (Dissent in America) delivers a doorstopper that few
readers will ever want to misuse in such a manner; his clear and elegant style
and a keen eye for good stories make it a page-turner...Young convincingly
demonstrates that the history of the United States is inextricably linked to
dissent and shows how 'protest is one of the consummate expressions of
Americanness.'"

—STARRED Publishers Weekly

·—

·"French
historian Alexis de Tocqueville warned about 'the tyranny of the majority' in
American democracy. This work deals with that important topic from
colonial times to the present. Young brings experience and knowledge to
this subject...This history will satisfy fans of Howard Zinn, Pete Seeger, and
Allen Ginsberg."

“Dissent is central to
American history,” writes historian, professor, terrorism expert, and novelist
Young, and central, one might extrapolate, to the American spirit and democracy
itself. Young originally constructed a
comprehensive and scholarly two-volume collection of the writings, speeches,
and manifestos of visionary and influential American dissenters. He now offers
a concentrated version that is both more accessible and more dramatic in
its chronological and inclusive coverage of a spectrum of resistance to
injustice, from pre–Revolutionary War petitions to protests against the Iraq
War. Name a world-altering social movement, and you will find fiery expressions
of its impetus, beliefs, demands, and hopes, from the birth of the nation to
religious freedom, free speech, abolition, environmental concerns, and the
battles to protect the rights of Native Americans, African Americans, workers,
women, and gays. Along with official documents and cries from the hearts of
ordinary citizens, Young includes protest music (Woody Guthrie, Ani DiFranco,
Mos Def), and profound and eloquent writings by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret
Fuller, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr., Mario Salvo, and Gloria
Steinem. --Donna Seaman --See all Editorial Reviews

Bill Ayers, Public Enemy

Posted on Oct 18, 2013

“It was a surreal moment,” said Bill Ayers of the experience of
hearing his name first mentioned on live television during the 2008 primary
election debate between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

When I met Ayers in person recently for an interview about his new
book, “Public Enemy: Confessions of an American Dissident,” he seemed like
anything but the terrorist he is often cast as by right-wing media. The closest
this white-haired, soft-spoken bespectacled man came to appearing radical was
the pair of silver hoop earrings he sported. It was hard to imagine that once
upon a time he was considered a dangerous fugitive and wanted by the federal
government.

The nearly 70-year-old education theory professor was in his home
surrounded by his students watching the television screen when the debate
moderator, George Stephanopoulos, asked Obama about his relationship with the
co-founder of the Weather Underground movement, a radical organization that
sought to end the Vietnam War through acts of property destruction and civil
disobedience.

Recalling how he felt when his name came up, Ayers told me, “It
was a bizarre moment because I think my students all felt that they knew me
quite well two minutes before this. Now they felt they didn’t know me at all.
And I felt the same way. I kind of knew myself, but ...” he trailed off. “Damn!
It was a strange moment!”

For Ayers that moment was indeed bizarre. And yet it was familiar
because he had been in the spotlight so often before. Ayers’ life has been
marked by various flashpoints, starting with his involvement in the Weather
Underground in the ’60s, followed by a decade on the run from the law. Then, in
1980 in Chicago
when he and his partner, Bernardine Dohrn, turned themselves in to federal
authorities, they were once more thrust into public view. In 2001, when Ayers’
memoir of the Weather Underground years, “Fugitive Days,” was released, his New York book tour
coincided with the Sept. 11 attacks, causing various commenters on the right to
associate him with that terrorist act. And finally, his latest and perhaps most
dramatic brush with notoriety came in 2008 when vice presidential candidate
Sarah Palin accused Barack Obama of “palling around with terrorists” like
Ayers.

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Ayers told me, “The phenomenon of a national American
presidential election is so beyond anything any of us has ever experienced that
being a little sideshow in that story makes you a mega-story.” He mused, “I
think the Weather Underground was never more dangerous, never more well known,
never more threatening than during the 2008 campaign.”

Being a “mega-story” has come with a heavy price—Ayers told me
matter-of-factly, “The threats came and came ... and they still come.” He even
joked about how Sarah Palin would get her crowds riled up during the election
campaign, chanting “kill him, kill him.” Ayers said, “I was never sure who they
wanted to kill—me or the candidate. But probably both!” Right before our
interview in Los Angeles, he was even confronted
at O’Hare Airport in Chicago when a man
apparently came up to him and quietly said right to his face, “Go back to Russia, you
bastard.”

What provokes such vitriol? One of the right wing’s prevailing
critiques of Ayers is that he is an “unrepentant terrorist.” Twelve years ago,
Ayers detailed his years in the Weather Underground in his memoir. He explained
to me that he certainly has regrets: “This idea that there are no regrets is
silly. [Journalist] Thomas Frank reviewed that book and said it reads like it’s
one long regret. Nobody can live as long as I have without having regrets.
Nobody did the right thing because we couldn’t end the Vietnam War and we
didn’t end the war—it went on for seven more years.”

But then Ayers clarified that he remains proud of his motives,
saying, “What I don’t have is regret for opposing that illegal, immoral,
destructive, genocidal war with every fiber of my being. I can’t regret it. I
crossed lines of legality, crossed lines maybe of common sense, but I can’t
regret destroying property to try to stop the murder of 6,000 people a week. I
just can’t regret it.”

The fact that his detractors fixate on his radical activism while
ignoring the destructive legacy of the Vietnam War angers Ayers. He
contextualized it: “I don’t think what we did was brilliant—I’m not advocating
anything. But I will say that what we did was a mosquito bite compared to what
the government was doing.”

Despite being labeled a “communist terrorist bomber” by the right
wing, Ayers says he does not consider himself a radical. He told me, “I think
on the 10 issues that I care most about, I’m in the majority in this country. A
lot of radicals and revolutionaries feel that they’re a barricaded minority.
I’ve never felt that way and I know part of that could be my own genetic makeup
and my own delusional thinking. But I’ve always felt that I was in the
majority!”

The decades of activism and experience that Ayers brings to the
pages of his new book, “Public Enemy,” are a reality check on the nostalgia
many of us have of the 1960s, even those of us who didn’t live through that
decade. Ayers is wary of romanticizing the ’60s, saying, “I don’t believe there
was any such thing as the ’60s. I think it’s a myth and a symbol and I think
it’s not a particularly helpful myth in some ways because I think for young
activists today they’re always reminded that nothing measures up to the ’60s.
We had the ‘best demonstrations,’ the ‘best actions,’ the ‘best music,’ the
‘best sex,’ and I’m always reassuring young people that it’s all still good.
... We were as confused and delusional and wandering around as anybody ever is
in life.”

Ayers has moved on from that time in his life even if the right
wing hasn’t. While he is known primarily for his early radical anti-war
activism, it is the years after 1980 in Chicago
that he spent as a parent, educator and community activist that form the
majority of his life’s work. And it is that part of his life he writes about in
his new book.

Truthdig Op-Ed,
NationofChange:The legal system has been grotesquely deformed in most cities
to, in essence, shut public space to protesters, eradicating our right to
free speech and peaceful assembly. The goal
of the corporate state is to criminalize democratic, popular dissent
before there is another popular eruption. The vast state surveillance system,
detailed in Edward Snowden’s
revelations to the British newspaper The
Guardian, at the same time ensures that no action or protest can occur
without the advanced knowledge of our internal security apparatus.